"Well, our concern has to do with the period prior to 9/11, up to and including the catastrophe that occurred. And thank goodness, we're not obliged to make assessments of what's going on now and deal with these current events"
About this Quote
There is a lawyerly chill to Ben-Veniste's relief: "thank goodness" lands like a procedural sigh, the sound of an institution drawing a boundary around catastrophe. In one breath he acknowledges "the catastrophe that occurred" and in the next he treats the present tense as an inconvenient jurisdictional spill. The phrase isn't callous so much as revealing. It exposes how official inquiries often metabolize disaster by turning it into a closed period, a file that can be opened, paginated, and then put back on the shelf.
The intent is defensive clarity. He's signaling that the mandate is retrospective: examine what led up to 9/11 and the event itself, not the messy, politically radioactive aftermath. That matters because post-9/11 "current events" would mean wars, surveillance, interrogations, intelligence failures continuing in real time - areas where conclusions could trigger immediate accountability, litigation, or partisan backlash. By praising the absence of obligation, he's also protecting the commission from being forced into prophecy or moral adjudication. Lawyers love bright lines because bright lines reduce exposure.
The subtext is institutional self-preservation disguised as modesty. "We're not obliged" frames restraint as virtue, as if the highest duty is to stay in your lane. But the lane itself is a choice, and he's quietly admitting that the safest way to produce a report is to stop the clock before the political costs begin. In the era of commissions and blue-ribbon panels, this is the trade: legitimacy purchased with narrow scope, at the price of leaving the most urgent questions technically out of bounds.
The intent is defensive clarity. He's signaling that the mandate is retrospective: examine what led up to 9/11 and the event itself, not the messy, politically radioactive aftermath. That matters because post-9/11 "current events" would mean wars, surveillance, interrogations, intelligence failures continuing in real time - areas where conclusions could trigger immediate accountability, litigation, or partisan backlash. By praising the absence of obligation, he's also protecting the commission from being forced into prophecy or moral adjudication. Lawyers love bright lines because bright lines reduce exposure.
The subtext is institutional self-preservation disguised as modesty. "We're not obliged" frames restraint as virtue, as if the highest duty is to stay in your lane. But the lane itself is a choice, and he's quietly admitting that the safest way to produce a report is to stop the clock before the political costs begin. In the era of commissions and blue-ribbon panels, this is the trade: legitimacy purchased with narrow scope, at the price of leaving the most urgent questions technically out of bounds.
Quote Details
| Topic | Justice |
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